Photograph by O. F. Cook
ANCIENT AQUEDUCT AND TERRACES
A portion of the long walls crossing the Urubamba Valley at Ollantaytambo, shown in the
general view on page 502
can be said now is that the indications of
such a center of origin and domestication
of plants in other parts of the world are
less definite than in the region of Peru.
It may be that the deep, narrow valleys
of Peru imposed conditions necessary to
the development of agriculture, at least
in its very early stages. The difficulties
of communication would mean that each
valley must have had its own group of
people, separate from all of the others,
and that each of these independent com
munities was restricted to a narrow range,
with only a limited stock of natural prod
ucts to draw upon, and hence under pres
sure to learn how to increase the growth
of the useful plants and destroy their
useless competitors.
Whatever the motive or the pressure
that led to the development of agriculture
under such conditions, of the fact there
can be no doubt. That the system of
agriculture did develop here is proved by
the fact that the plants on which the agri
culture was based were indigenous, and
that no such system existed in other parts
of America.
YOU CAN LOOK FROM T'IHE EQUATOR TO
THE POLES
Agriculture in Peru is a matter of alti
tude.
Geographically you are in the
tropics, but agriculturally you may be
anywhere between the Equator and the
northern limit of agriculture, at the Arc
tic Circle. Moreover, you can find this